Kunal Vijaykar (born 19 May 1964) is a broadcaster, food writer, author, actor and television personality. A whole generation have watched him eat his way into the hearts of hundreds and thousands of Indians. He is India’s most recognisable food show host, and the anchor of the country's most popular food show ''The Foodie – with Kunal Vijayakar'', a show which ran uninterrupted for nine years, completing close to 500 episodes. He has been a food columnist and writer with ''The Times of India'', ''Bombay Times'', ''DNA'', ''Asian Age'', ''Mahanagar'', and ''The Week'' and is currently a food writer and columnist with ''Hindustan Times''. He is the author of ''Made In India'' – his first cookbook. He also operates his own

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel by the name of "Khaane mein kya hai" (loosely translates to "What's for lunch?"), which has around 234k subscribers currently. He is also an actor, director and political satirist, and writer, performer and director of the political satirical show ''The News That Wasn't'' and ''The Week That Wasn't'' on CNN News18, along with regular collaborator and close friend

Cyrus Broacha Cyrus Broacha is an Indian TV anchor, theatre personality, comedian, political satirist, columnist, podcaster and author. He is also a prankster, best known for his show ''Bakra'' on MTV and his show ''The Week That Wasn't'' on CNN-News18 (for ...

Early life

He studied at St. Mary's School, Mumbai. He then received his bachelor's degree from

Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art is an Indian applied art institution based in Mumbai. It is a state government college that was started through its sister school, the Sir J. J. School of Art. The "Sir J. J." in the name stands for Sir Jamse ...

, Mumbai.

Career

Kunal started out by appearing in various TV commercials and appeared in supporting roles in many Hindi movies, including ''

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'' (1998) by

Mahesh Bhatt Mahesh Bhatt (born 20 September 1948) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter known for his works in Hindi cinema. A stand-out film from his earlier period is ''Saaransh'' (1984), screened at the 14th Moscow International Film F ...

, ''Paisa Vasool'' (2004), and ''

Salaam Namaste ''Salaam Namaste'' () is a 2005 Indian romantic comedy film, directed by first-time director Siddharth Anand and produced by Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film stars Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta in their fo ...

'' (2005) with

Saif Ali Khan Saif Ali Khan (; born Sajid Ali Khan Pataudi; 16 August 1970) is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi films. Part of the Pataudi family, he is the son of actress Sharmila Tagore and cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Khan ma ...

and

Preity Zinta Preity G Zinta (pronounced ; born 31 January 1975) is an Indian actress and entrepreneur primarily known for her work in Hindi cinema, Hindi films. After graduating with degrees in English literature, English honours and criminal psychology, Z ...

. He played the role of a journalist in the Hindi film '' Ghajini'' (2008) and was seen as Kunal in ''

Little Zizou ''Little Zizou'' is a 2008 Indian drama film written and directed by Sooni Taraporevala. ''Little Zizou'' is a comedy about how two battling Mumbai families finally come to terms. ''Little Zizou'' won the "Rajat Kamal" of 'National Film Award f ...

'' (2009), a story of the

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community. He is the host of the channel

Times Now Times Now is an English news channel in India owned and operated by The Times Group. The channel launched on 23 January 2006 in partnership with Reuters. It is a pay television throughout India. Until 2016, it was India's most popular and the m ...

show titled ''The Foodie'', which features him travelling around the country sampling exotic foods. His weekly satire comedy show The Week That Wasn't, with comedian

CNN IBN CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internationa ...

completed eight years and 450 episodes in 2015. He does a

sketch show Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and i ...

with Cyrus Broacha, ''Cyrusitis'', written and directed by Broacha. Vijaykar debuted as a screenwriter and director in 2009 with ''Fruit and Nut'', a comedy starring

Dia Mirza Dia Mirza Rekhi (born Dia Handrich; 9 December 1981) is an Indian model, actress, producer, and social worker who predominantly works in Hindi films. Mirza won the title of Miss Asia Pacific International in 2000 after being crowned Femina Mis ...

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, and

Mahesh Manjrekar Mahesh Vaman Manjrekar (Marathi pronunciation: əɦeːʃ maːɲd͡zɾekəɾ born 16 August 1958) is an Indian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer who works primarily in Hindi films, alongside Marathi, Telugu and Bhojpuri films. H ...

. Since 2011, he also writes the fortnightly humour column "Funda Mental", in ''The Week'' magazine. Has just written his first cookbook ''Made in India'', published by Jaico.

Filmography

Actor

* ''

'' (1998) * ''

Bollywood Calling Bollywood Calling is a 2001 Indian English-language comedy drama film written and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. The film stars Pat Cusick, Navin Nischol, Om Puri, and Perizaad Zorabian. The film showcases the satirical nuances of Bollywood. I ...

'' (2001) * ''

Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon ''Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon'' (English: ''I am crazy about Prem''), is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy drama film by Sooraj Barjatya and produced by Rajshri Productions. The film is a remake of the 1976 film ''Chitchor'' and features ...

'' (2003) * '' Paisa Vasool'' (2004) * ''

Ab Tak Chhappan ''Ab Tak Chhappan'' () is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language action film directed by Shimit Amin. It was written by Sandeep Shrivastava and produced by Ram Gopal Varma. It starred Nana Patekar in the lead role. It also starred Revathi, Yashpal Sh ...

'' (2004) * '' Jo Bole So Nihaal'' (2005) * ''

'' (2005)) * '' Ghajini'' (2008) * ''

'' (2009)Filmography

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is a Bollywood entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provides ...

. * '' Fruit and Nut'' (2009) * ''Guilty'' (2020) * ''

Hello Charlie ''Hello Charlie'' is an Indian Hindi-language comedy film written and directed by Pankaj Saraswat and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under the Excel Entertainment banner. The film stars Jackie Shroff, Aadar Jain and debutante Shh ...

'' (2021)

Director

* ''Fruit And Nut'' (2009)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vijaykar, Kunal Living people Indian male television actors Male actors in Hindi cinema Hindi-language film directors Indian male comedians Male actors from Mumbai Place of birth missing (living people) 1964 births